Five-Year Development Plans of Renewable Energy Policies in Iran: A Content Analysis

Somayeh Dehhaghi,Barat Ghobadian,Horatiu Ioan Stefanie,Hossein Azadi,Ants-Hannes Viira,Steven Van Passel,Homayon Farhadian,Shahla Choobchian

doi:10.3390/su14031501

Abstract

Renewable energy (RE) policies can play an effective role in the development of renewable resources. The main goal of this paper was to conduct a content analysis on RE development policies in Iran’s five-year National Development Plan (NDP) by investigating upstream national documents. To achieve the goal, 29 upstream documents related to RE were identified and analyzed through a systematic literature review. Then, a qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the documents. The results showed that Iran’s current RE policies need to be reviewed, reformed, and strengthened. For example, lack of sufficient attention to renewable heat and fuel was one of the deficiencies of RE policies in Iran’s five-year NDP. The decentralization of policymaking in the unified organization was also one of the weaknesses in the policymaking process of the RE. Iran can develop sustainable and clean RE policies by using sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, wave, and tidal power. The paper concludes that, although RE policies have the potential for development in Iran due to environmental, social, and economic advantages, they could face some infrastructural, managerial, socio-cultural, and economic challenges. Accordingly, effective and innovative policymaking is required to meet such challenges.

Highlights

Today, ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of energy as well as an appropriate demand market is a crucial concern of any government for comprehensive development.This is only possible with energy policymaking [1,2,3] at all levels of national governments and at the international level
The results of the present study showed that Iran’s current policies need to be reviewed, reformed, and strengthened
To answer the first research question, it should be indicated that, due to the high dispersion of renewable energy (RE) policies in Iran’s five-year National Development Plan (NDP), studying and analyzing this concept should be considered as a multifaceted issue

Summary

Introduction

Today, ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of energy as well as an appropriate demand market is a crucial concern of any government for comprehensive development. This is only possible with energy policymaking [1,2,3] at all levels of national governments and at the international level. Energy policy is an important tool for influencing on societies’ economic, political, and social activities [11,12].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion